The best thing about a handyman's business is that there is no limit to what service you can provide.

The best thing about a handyman's business is that there is no limit to what service you can provide.

With a base set of carpentry, mechanical, plumbing and electrician skills you can diversify to other areas.

Even if you don't have the skills you can still start a handyman's business by subcontracting other handymen. You can market and sell services by getting someone else to do the work.

If you have some skills, use them and outsource the ones you don't have. For example, if you only specialise in interior carpentry and painting, but some of your customers need lawn care, create a relationship with a lawn care business, mark up their services and sell them to your customers.

Alternatively, you can negotiate a fee from the handyman that you refer to customers.

It is also possible to sharpen your skills and add more services as your business grows.

You can acquire other skills by reading Do It Yourself books and browsing through Yahoo and Google on the Internet.

Just go to these sites and type in: "How to replace windows, how to do basic plumbing, how to wire a light switch and so on."

You will be amazed at how much information you can get for free.

How to get work for your handyman company?

Visit hardware shops and other home furnishing companies and get on their subcontractor list.

But before doing that remember that starting a business is hard work and can be frustrating, especially at the start-up stage. The biggest problem you are likely to face is cash flow.

To avoid cash flow problems budding entrepreneurs can keep their current jobs and do handyman business on weekends and after normal working hours.

This will help you find out if you have the necessary skills to succeed. Make sure that before you quit your job, you have enough money set aside. Even if you have a few jobs or customers lined up, the money might not come in as quickly as you hope, so you must have a back-up plan.

Planning in advance is also crucial if you want to succeed in any business and you must do the same with your handyman business.

You must have a plan on how you will pay your bills and your employees, including yourself; send invoices to customers; pay your taxes and all of the other office functions associated with running a business.

You must also arrange parts and materials for suppliers.

As a small service business owner in which you might be doing all or most of the work, you will need a contingency plan in case you become incapacitated or get sick.

You should at least know another handyman you can trust to whom you can refer your customers to in case you are unable to help your customers.

Buy the necessary equipment in order to do your jobs effectively.

Also buy some software programmes that will teach you how to do certain things.

Once you have the programme make sure that you go through the training modules.

The time you spend doing this will return the investment many times over.

You also need to be organised to succeed in this business.